Because You Live
by esmtz
Summary: Jesse McCartney. When something goes horribly wrong and Ellis almost dies can Nick come to terms with his feelings for Ellis or will he lose him to someone else. NickxEllis, FrancisxEllis, LouisxRochelle maybe
1. Separated

Because You Live

By: esmtz

"Coach, where on earth is Ellis and Rochelle?!" Nick yelled at his fellow teammate as he was fending off a group of zombies who were coming at him from all sides.

"Aw hell they're not here?!" Coach replied who was also fighting off zombies and looked around. He saw Louis and yelled out to him, "Louis, have you seen Ro or Ellis anywhere?"

Louis turned and looked at Coach with an annoyed look on his face, "Do I look like I have the time to see where they went?!"

"Louis, watch out!" Zoey cried out as she saw a smoker grab a hold of Louis with its tongue and started dragging him towards it. Zoey pulled out her pistols and shot at the smoker making it let go of Louis.

"This is bad. Both of our groups are missing half of our teams!" Coach yelled as he pushed a jockey away from him before it could jump on him.

Nick gritted his teeth concern clearly written on his face as he killed most of the zombies that were on him and started looking around for any sign of Ellis or Rochelle, but mostly Ellis. He had taken a liking to the kid and had soon felt himself responsible for him. He would never admit it, but he had fallen in love with Ellis.

"Nick, this is no time to be looking around for them. We'll have to look for them after we've killed all the zombies!" Coach told him sternly, "We're not going to be any good to them if we get ourselves killed!"

"Coach, they could be in trouble!" Nick replied angrily.

Zoey nodded.

"He's right we should go and look for them. For all we know they could be in serious trouble!" Zoey said worriedly.

"Don't worry about them, Zoey. Francis and Bill can take care of themselves and I'm sure their friends, Ellis and Rochelle will be fine too." Louis told her as he shot at a few zombies behind Nick and Coach.

Suddenly the cry of a witch and the sound of a car went off making the group turn to where the noise was coming from.

"You were saying, Louis." Zoey said shaking her head as she ran towards the noise quickly followed by Nick, Coach, and Louis.

"I'm really sorry I didn't mean to set off the alarm!" Rochelle cried as she watched Ellis pick up Bill from the ground who had startled the witch.

"Well, it just means we get to kill more Zombies." Francis grinned as he protected Ellis and Bill from oncoming zombies.

"Are you alright?" Ellis asked Bill.

"Yeah let's just get out of here before more trouble shows up." Bill replied as he started limping away shooting zombies as he went.

"Well so much for that." Rochelle said as she gave her adrenaline to Bill and started running, "TANK!"

Francis and Ellis followed behind them and started shooting at the tank.

"Well I'm out of ammo, you still got any there kid?" Francis asked looking at Ellis.

Ellis shook his head.

"Nah, I wasted the rest of it on the witch. I've still got my pistols though." Ellis replied as both of them shot at the tank who was quickly catching up to them.

"Ellis!"

Ellis turned his head slightly and saw that Nick and the others had finally caught up with them.

"About time you guys showed up!" Francis yelled.

"Man oh man this is bad…" Ellis said as the tank ran towards them and swung its arm at Ellis and Francis sending them both very close to a lake.

"ELLIS!" Nick yelled out as he started shooting at the tank getting its attention.

Zoey, Louis, Coach, Rochelle, and Bill did their best to help kill the tank and finally before it could hit Nick it dropped to its knees and died. As it did Nick started running towards Ellis and Francis just as another big group of zombies attacked and a hunter got on Bill and started clawing at him.

"This just keeps getting better and better huh, kid?" Francis grinned as he picked himself off the ground and just as he was about to shoot the zombies that ere surrounding the others a jockey jumped on him and steered him away from Ellis, "Ugh get this thing off of me!"

"Francis!" Ellis yelled as he tried to aim his pistols at the jockey, but then the sound of Nick's cry turned Ellis's attention to Nick and watched in horror as he saw a smoker strangling him with a small group of zombies also going at him.

Ellis started shooting hoping that he would be able to kill the smoker with at least some of the zombies. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that someone had killed the jockey that was riding Francis and he was on his way to help the others. Ellis went to get closer to Nick to help him out, but he felt something wrap around his legs and drag him down. He turned his head slightly and saw that he was being dragged towards the lake. He turned his attention back to Nick and aimed his pistols at the smoker.

'Please oh please let me save Nick!' Ellis thought desperately to himself as he pulled the triggers.

To Ellis's relief he saw the smoker die and Nick was still able to stand and defend himself. Ellis watched as he saw Nick look at him with horror in his eyes and saw that he was desperately trying to get past the zombies to get to him. Ellis smiled to himself.

"At least he's ok…" Ellis said to himself as he was dragged into the water. The last thing he heard was Nick screaming out his name.

Author's note: Ok well this is my first time doing a l4d story so I'm sorry to say that the characters will probably be out of character. I've never really been good at knowing if I'm putting the characters in character or not so yeah. I'm not sure how long this story is going to be probably not long but who knows also I added a new special infected and it lives in the water. Before I was sure about making this into a story since I had a dream about it I know weird huh anyway let me know if you like or not oh and pairings are: NickxEllis, LouisxRochelle (probably), and slight FrancisxEllis uh yeah interesting couples I know, but I like them. I'll update when I can.


	2. Nick's desperation

Because You Live

By: esmtz

Nick felt as if he was going to have a heart attack as he was forced to watch as Ellis disappeared under the water. He continued to kill as many zombies as he could that were stopping him from getting to Ellis.

'Some help here would be nice!' Nick thought angrily as he pushed more zombies out of the way and to his surprise help showed up.

"Hey you stupid zombies over here!" Francis cried out as he shot at a few of them and watched as the rest charged at him.

"Nick, you better hurry and help out Ellis or else he might not make it!" Rochelle said as she stood in front of him and killed any zombies that were still trying to get at him.

"Rochelle's right, man. Just get going. We'll cover you." Louis added as he stood close to Rochelle and helped her out.

"You guys don't need to tell me twice!" Nick responded as he took off towards the lake and quickly dived right in.

"There's too many of them! Where are they all coming from?!" Zoey yelled as she saw more zombies showing up, "It's not like this is a city, we're out in the middle of nowhere!"

"Watch out!" Bill said as a spitter showed up and had spit in the direction where Louis and Rochelle were at.

"Man what the hell was that?!" Louis said as he quickly moved away.

"Well this is fun, but shouldn't somebody go and help that other guy out?" Francis asked as he saw a charger charge at Zoey and quickly killed it before it could do any serious damage.

"Since you're so worried why don't you go and help him out, Francis?" Bill said as he took pain pills that he got from Coach.

"Uh, you sure?" Francis asked.

"Just get the hell out of here already. The rest of us can deal with this shit hole we got ourselves into." Coach said killing a Boomer who had vomited on Louis and Zoey.

"Well alright then. I hate shit holes." Francis said as he ran off towards the lake.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" Rochelle asked as she protected Louis and Zoey.

"They'll be fine, Ro. You know them nothing can bring those guys down." Coach told her.

Zoey shook her head half expecting for them to not be ok as she pushed zombies away from her and shot at them.

"What the hell was it that dragged your teammate into the water anyway?" Bill asked.

"I don't know and that's what's worrying me." Rochelle replied.

Under the water, Ellis was struggling to break loose from the infected that had him now in a tight embrace and was trying to put its face closer to Ellis's.

'What the heck is it tryin to do?!' Ellis thought frightened as he tried with all his might to keep his face away from it.

Ellis was starting to run out of breath and he couldn't even use his hands and arms to push the infected away from him. All he could do right now was to try and kick at it, but it wasn't doing anything to get him away from it.

'This is bad at this rate I'm gonna…' Ellis stopped what he was thinking as he barely saw a white blur above him headed his way, 'is that…Nick?

As Ellis looked up it gave the infected the chance to quickly put its mouth on his and start sucking the air out of his body. In a matter of seconds Ellis's vision started to darken and he felt himself losing energy. Nick was on the infected almost immediately and started trying to pry it off of Ellis, but was pushed back as the infected's long tail scratched him on the side of his chest and blood started pouring out. Nick didn't feel the pain and went back to trying to get it off Ellis. Nick started to panic as he saw that Ellis wasn't moving and his eyes were closed.

'Overalls?!' Nick felt his heart beat speed up and just as the infected was about to turn on him it screamed out in pain and released Ellis.

Nick turned his head and saw that the same guy who had helped him out earlier was here and had stabbed the creature with a knife.

'What the hell is that thing?!' Francis thought as he stabbed at it again making it angrier and it charged at him.

While Francis was distracting it, Nick swam towards Ellis who had been slowly drifting downward and quickly put his arms around Ellis's body and swam up towards the surface as fast as he could. As soon as he did, Nick coughed up water and looked at Ellis who was still not moving.

"E-Ellis?!" Nick gasped for air as he quickly swam them both to where the others were at.

Most of the zombies and special infected were killed and Nick saw as Louis and Coach killed the rest of them. Bill was badly hurt and in need of a medic kit, Louis and Coach were hurt but not bad enough to need a medic kit right away, Rochelle was alright and Zoey was only slightly hurt. Everyone saw as Nick walked towards them with Ellis in his arms and laid him on the ground. Rochelle's eyes went wide and she and Coach ran over to them.

"Oh my god, Ellis?!" Rochelle cried as she fell to her knees next to him and Nick.

"What happened down there, Nick and where's Francis?" Coach asked.

Nick swallowed trying to keep himself from losing it in front of everyone.

"There was some kind of infected down there. It looked almost like a scuba diver except it had a long tail and I don't know but I think it did something to Ellis." Nick's voice was barely a whisper at that last part, "The other guy who was with me was fighting it off while I got Ellis back up here."

"So you're saying Francis is still down there?!" Zoey said horrified.

"No look there he is." Louis said making everyone look up and see that Francis was already back on shore holding his stomach.

"Francis!" Zoey yelled and ran up to him just as he fell to his knees and coughed up some water, "You're hurt…"

Francis grinned slightly.

"I'm fine don't worry about me it's just a scratch. How's the kid?"

"You're not fine, Francis! You're bleeding all over!" Zoey told him.

Everyone was quiet as soon as Francis mentioned Ellis. Francis frowned slightly and turned to look at him. Nick was practically on top of him trying to shake him awake.

"This isn't funny, Ellis. Wake up already c'mon. We still need to get everyone to the next safe house." Nick said swallowing again.

Ellis just laid there unresponsive.

"Does he even have a pulse?" Rochelle put her fingers on Ellis's neck and then removed them and stayed quiet looking at Nick sadly.

After a few minutes of watching Nick trying to get Ellis to respond to him, Rochelle got closer to him and put her arms around him.

"Nick, he's…he's gone. We really should be going." Rochelle told him sadly unable to look at Ellis.

Nick pushed Rochelle off of him and growled slightly.

"Don't you say that, Rochelle. He's not…" Nick couldn't even bring himself to say the word.

Francis sat where he was at eyes glued to the kid who looked like he was sleeping and then looked at the man who was having a hard time dealing with what was going on. Francis swallowed and looked down; guilt overtaking him.

'If I only showed up earlier…if I hadn't let myself get jumped on by that jockey…' Francis didn't even care that he was losing a lot of his blood and that Zoey was trying to stop the blood but taking off her jacket and pushing it against his wound.

Nick wasn't about to give up on Ellis so he decided to do CPR. He plugged Ellis's nose and put his mouth on Ellis's and started blowing air into his lungs and then pressed on his chest a couple of times. This continued for another few minutes.

"Come on, overalls, come on. You can't leave me alone here like this not when we've come so far." Nick said in between breaths.

Rochelle started crying and Louis kneeled next to her and hugged her. Zoey was on the verge of tears, Francis was still looking down towards the ground with his fists clenched. After another few minutes past Coach went up to Nick and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Nick, he's gone. We have to get moving. We've got two people here who seriously need a medic kit." Coach said, "The safe house should be nearby."

"Well then get going. I'm not going anywhere." Nick told him.

"Nick.."

"No!"

"Dammit, Nick we ain't got time for this!"

"Fuck off, Coach!"

Just as Coach and Nick started to argue the sound of coughing was heard and everyone watched as Ellis coughed up the water that was in his lungs and as soon as he was finished he started to breathe normally, but was still unconscious. Nick sighed with relief as he laid his head on Ellis's chest; the tears finally starting to fall.

'He's alive oh thank god.' Nick thought.

"Well we should get a move on now before more of the infected shows up." Bill said as he struggled to stand up.

"Don't curse us again, Bill." Zoey said as she helped Francis to his feet who had a small smile on his face.

Rochelle nodded in agreement wiping away the tears from her eyes and slightly blushed as Louis helped her to her feet.

Nick picked up Ellis and they all started heading to where the safe house was at.

Author's note: I would like to thank the two people who have reviewed my story so far. I'm not sure if I did any better with this chapter or not but anyway let me know. I'm hoping to see more people get interested in this story later on and i'm starting to think that there might be a bit more of FrancisxEllis then what I said before. I'm not sure how much, but I know a bit more, but don't worry in the end it WILL be NickxEllis since I absolutely LOVE that couple. Yeah I know I'm a total fangirl.


	3. Safe House

Because You Live

By: esmtz

Ellis groaned as he opened his eyes slowly and sat up wondering where he was at. As soon as he looked around though he immediately knew where he was at.

'A safe room, but how did I get here?' Ellis thought to himself wincing in pain as he clutched at his chest.

The door to the room opened and Zoey entered looking at him with wide eyes as she closed the door.

"Hey, I didn't know that you were awake already otherwise I would have come in here earlier," Zoey said as she kneeled next to him, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, just slightly in pain is all," Ellis replied looking at her, "how is everyone?" he asked worried more so about Nick.

Zoey smiled slightly at him.

"You're the one in pain and you're worried about everyone else. Well everyone is alright except for Bill who had been badly hurt by the witch you guys ran into and then a hunter got on him. Francis was also badly hurt from that thing that had you under water." Zoey said and watched as Ellis looked immediately worried.

"How bad was it, Zoey?" Ellis asked as he swallowed; nervous about what she was going to say.

"Well it was so bad that I'm surprised that his guts weren't coming out of him." Zoey quivered at the thought.

Ellis turned completely white.

"He's going to be alright isn't he?"

"Well we already stitched him up and every few hours we have to keep changing the bandages, but other then that he should be fine." Zoey replied.

"I have to go see him." Ellis said as he started to stand up and winced in even more pain.

"No you don't, Ellis. You just lie back down right now. That thing must have really hurt your ribs for you to be hurting like that." Zoey told him sternly, "Besides Francis sent me here to check up on you. Well he wanted to come himself, but I told him to stay where he was at and that I would check up on you," she admitted.

Ellis nodded reluctantly and lied back down on the bed.

"What about, Nick? Is he ok?" Ellis asked finally.

"He's fine. He's just been really worried about you though. He wouldn't leave your side until I told him that it would be better for him to let you rest. Of course it took some convincing that you would be ok." Zoey said frowning slightly.

"What's wrong, Zoey?" Ellis asked.

Zoey shook her head and looked down.

'It looked like he was trying to hide something from us. Was he injured too trying to save Ellis?' Zoey wondered.

The door opened again and in came Coach, Rochelle, and Nick.

"Hey, look who's awake!" Coach said beaming.

"Ellis, sweetie, how are you feeling?" Rochelle asked kneeling next to Zoey.

"I'm fine I'm just glad to know that y'all are alright." Ellis smiled looking at them and then focusing on Nick.

"We thought we lost you for awhile there." Coach told him.

Nick rubbed the back of his head and looked away. Ellis frowned.

"Nick?"

"Yeah, it's really good to see that you're alright, overalls, Rochelle was practically crying her eyes out when she saw that you…were hurt," Nick said and looked at him with guilt in his eyes.

Rochelle turned and gave him a look and Coach just shook his head.

"Oh, well…I'm alright, Rochelle. Nothing to worry about." Ellis said disappointment in his voice, "So how long have I been out?"

"It's been almost two days now, Ellis." Coach told him, "everyone's been worried about you."

Zoey got up and left the room to check on Bill and Francis.

"How is he, Zoey?" Louis asked as she passed by him to go to the other room where Bill was at.

"He'll be fine. He's awake now and is in pain from his ribs, but he'll live." Zoey replied smiling and walked into Bill's room.

"We really don't have time for this. We really should be on our way to the evac station." Bill immediately said as soon as Zoey walked in.

Zoey sighed.

"We'll be on our way sooner then you think, Bill. Ellis is awake and Francis's wound is slowly starting to look better."

Bill snorted and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter and started smoking.

"I still don't see what he sees in that kid." Bill said.

"What are you talking about, Bill?" Zoey asked.

"You saw how he reacted when the kid wasn't waking up. He didn't even care that he was bleeding to death." Bill told her, "I bet you that any minute now Francis is going to rush downstairs from his room and run right into the kid's room."

Both of them were silent as they heard a loud noise and someone running downstairs.

"See? Told ya." Bill said slightly annoyed.

"Francis, you're not fully healed yet. You shouldn't be moving right now! You can tear your stitches!" Louis yelled at him as he ran to catch up with him.

"To hell with that, if the kids ok I have to see it for myself!" Francis grinned.

"Dude, why do you even care? You don't really even know him!" Louis said.

"Hey I could ask you the same thing about that Rochelle girl. You seem to be hitting it off pretty well with her don't you think?" Francis laughed as he saw Louis turn red.

"Well, that's different."

"Yeah, right. Different my ass."

Francis saw that the door was still open and immediately went in and saw that everyone was looking at them and that both Rochelle and Ellis had turned bright red.

"Did they hear us?" Louis asked completely embarrassed.

"Well we were loud enough," Francis grinned, "It's great to see you're up already kid."

Nick looked at Francis completely annoyed and Rochelle looked at Louis and then quickly turned away when she saw him looking at her blushing furiously. Coach just stood there laughing his ass off.

"Aw hell I haven't seen this much fun in along time. I best get out of your guys's way." Coach grinned as he left the room.

Francis ignored the look Nick was giving him and went closer to Ellis.

"Wait a minute, Francis aren't you still badly hurt?" Rochelle asked looking at him.

Ellis eyes went wide remembering what Zoey had told him.

"You shouldn't be walking around if you're that badly hurt!" Ellis cried.

Francis smiled at him.

"I don't really feel the pain anymore besides Zoey and Coach patched me up really good so there's nothing to worry about."

Nick scowled clenching his fists as he looked at Francis. Sensing the awkwardness in the room, Louis and Rochelle left closing the door behind them.

"Well, alright if you say so just please don't over do it once we get ready to head on out of here." Ellis told him still worried.

Francis nodded and put a hand on Ellis's shoulder.

"Who the hell are you anyway?" Nick asked angrily making Ellis and Francis look at him.

"Forgot my name already? The names Francis. Hell I forgot yours too. What is it again?" Francis smirked as he stood up and was face to face with Nick.

"The guy who's going to punch your fucking face in. It's Nick and you better remember it well." Nick said.

If anyone else had seen the look on Nick's they would have run away frightened, but Francis just stood there completely amused. Ellis looked from Nick to Francis to back to Nick wondering why he was so angry with Francis. After a few seconds Francis headed toward the door and looked back at Nick.

"I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you, Nick. You were just plain lucky that I decided to help your sorry ass out from that infected in the water. Next time you might not be so lucky." Francis told him and left the room.

Author's note: lol yeah already Nick and Francis hate each others guts and poor Ellis has absolutely no idea why. I'm surprised that this story already has 200 hits from just the first two chapters alone! Thanks again to the reviewers so far I'm sorry that it seems like my chapters are short, but if I made them too long the story will end sooner rather then later and I don't think you guys would want that so soon so I'm going to try and extend this story for as long as I can. I can't promise you guys that I'll finish this story since I never got back to my last south park one but I will try as long as my computer doesn't die on me again! T_T


	4. The Forest

Because You Live

By: esmtz

The next day everyone was up and getting ready to head on out again. They were stacking up on as much supplies as they could and found that they didn't have a lot of medic kits.

"Well, looks like only three of us will be having a medic kit. Who's it going to be to hold on to them?" Bill asked as he stood next to the safe room door watching as everyone else got ready.

"I guess I'll take one of them," Zoey replied as she took one and held her pistols at her side.

"Are you guys sure you don't need a medic kit?" Rochelle asked her group glancing at Ellis.

"Nah I'm good, Rochelle, thanks but really I'm alright." Ellis told her smiling as he picked up the combat shotgun.

Nick shook his head and looked at her.

"I'll pick up one later if we ever come across some more," Nick said, "don't worry about it, Rochelle. You can have it."

Ellis frowned glancing at Nick feeling hurt that he didn't tell him to take it.

"I agree with Nick here, take it." Coach said.

Rochelle nodded and picked up the second med kit.

"For the love of God, Francis just take the last one. More then likely you will be needing it." Zoey sighed as she watched Francis pick up some pain pills.

"I don't need it how many times do I have to tell you, Zoey?" Francis said looking at her slightly annoyed, "quit acting like my mom for heaven's sake."

"Francis, we don't have time for this!" Zoey told him.

Bill sighed and lit up a cigarette.

"Sometime before I die of old age people." Bill complained.

"Hey, uh, Francis just please take the med kit alright?" Ellis said looking at him worriedly.

There was an awkward silence before Francis decided to pick it up and walk towards the door. Zoey shook her head and looked at Ellis.

"Thanks, I don't know why, but it seems that he listens to you more then he does to his own team." Zoey said.

Ellis felt himself turn red and nodded.

"No problem, but to be honest I don't know why that is myself." Ellis told her.

Rochelle giggled and Coach grinned.

"Maybe it's because he likes you, Ellis." Rochelle said softly so that only he and their group could hear her.

Ellis turned redder and shook his head.

"Nah, no way, Rochelle, besides we barely only met these guys like what a week ago? There's just no way…" Ellis said more to himself.

"Well even so maybe it's love at first sight," Rochelle couldn't hide her laughter from the look on Ellis's face.

Nick growled and pushed past Ellis and Rochelle to stand near the door.

"Somebody's jealous." Coach said who was also laughing.

"What the heck are you talking about, Coach? Nick's not like that especially not when it comes to me." Ellis replied sadly looking at Rochelle with envy in his eyes.

Rochelle noticed this and looked at him sadly.

"Oh, sweetie it's not like that between him and me."

Ellis shook his head and looked away not believing at all what Rochelle had said.

"Hey, quit yer yapping and lets get going already." Bill said.

"Are we all ready yet?" Francis asked who didn't even have the slightest clue that he was being talked about.

"Hey, stop it you guys we might not all be ready yet." Louis replied as he looked at Rochelle expectantly and she nodded.

"We're ready just go ahead and open the door." Rochelle said turning her head to look at Bill and Francis.

"Alright then, ladies lets move out!" Francis yelled out making Ellis blush.

Nick rolled his eyes and crossed his arms looking at Francis.

"Whatever just do me a favor and don't get in my way." Nick said opening the door and walked out.

Francis raised an eyebrow at him and followed right after Bill. As soon as everyone was outside they immediately pulled out their weapons.

"Well, how far is it to the evac station?" Zoey asked hoping it wasn't going to be far.

"It's still going to be quite some time before we get there." Coach replied.

"You think so, Coach?" Ellis asked looking at him.

Coach nodded and looked around.

"It's going to be in a small town which I don't see any sign of it from here. As far as I can tell we're in the middle of a forest and it'll be very easy to get lost in here. Now lets just try to stay in the group and not get too far from everyone else got it?" Coach said to everyone.

"Well ain't that convenient for the infected when they come to attack us again." Nick said, "Let's just get out of this goddamn forest as soon as we can."

"In case something does happen lets just at least stick with a partner." Louis said.

"Good idea, man. I hate forests." Francis said.

"Of course you do, Francis." Zoey smiled slightly.

Before Ellis could go towards Nick and ask him to stick with him Nick already went towards Rochelle making both Louis and Ellis feel hurt.

'Why do I even bother?' Ellis sighed 'He's not even looking at me. Is he avoiding me for some reason?'

"Hey, kid."

Ellis looked up and saw that Francis was standing in front of him grinning. Ellis turned slightly red.

"Uh, hey Francis what is it?" Ellis asked.

"Well I noticed that you didn't have a partner so do you want to partner up with me?" Francis asked slightly red and was rubbing the back of his head.

Ellis looked at him and then at Nick who was still with Rochelle and then nodded looking back at Francis and smiled.

"I would like that, Francis, thanks." Ellis said.

Francis beamed.

"Alright then. I'll watch your back and you'll watch mine!"

The pairings, in case if anyone got separated, were: Bill and Coach, Zoey and Louis, Nick and Rochelle, and Francis and Ellis. As soon as that was taken care of the group started to head deeper into the forest away from the safe house. They all kept their guns up in case something came up and surprised them. After a couple of hours of walking through the forest it started to become clear that something wasn't right.

"What's going on? Where the heck is everyone?" Ellis asked looking around for all the zombies.

"Do you smell that?" Bill asked sniffing the air.

"Yeah it smells like something is burning," Coach replied, "everyone keep your guard up."

Zoey gasped and quickly turned around.

"What is it Zoey?" Louis asked her.

It took a few seconds before she replied.

"It's nothing. I thought I heard something, but it might have been just me." Zoey shook her head.

"No I heard it too." Francis said looking around and getting a little closer to Ellis protectively.

Ellis didn't notice as he also had his guard up his back facing Francis. Ellis felt his heart pounding in his chest out of nervousness and he backed up to where his and Francis's backs were touching. He hadn't noticed as Francis slipped his own hand into his holding a pistol in the other. A few more minutes passed and Bill let out a sigh of relief.

"It's gone for now whatever it was." Bill said.

"What's that?" Rochelle asked pointing up at smoke that was coming from somewhere nearby.

"It looks like something that might have been set on fire." Nick replied as he looked at it and turned to see which way the wind was blowing it towards.

As he turned, however, he saw that Francis and Ellis had been holding hands and started to immediately feel the need to go over there and kick the crap out of Francis.

'Why the fuck do I feel this way?! It's not as if I care what Ellis does…do I?'

Nick tried to suppress his anger as best he could but was failing miserably as his face contorted into a look of fury and his hands were clenched into fists so tightly that they slightly started to bleed. He quickly turned to look away from then and saw in the corner of his eye the look Rochelle was giving him.

"What?!" Nick asked.

"Oh, nothing it's just that I can't believe how stupid you really are sometimes." Rochelle said shaking her head with a smile on her face.

"What does that mean, Rochelle?!" Nick turned red glaring at her.

Ellis looked over at Nick and Rochelle and was even more hurt when he saw that Nick was looking at her blushing. He then noticed that he was holding on to something and looked down and immediately started blushing as soon as he saw that he was holding Francis's hand.

'Uh, how the heck did that get there?' Ellis asked turning redder by the second and looked up at Francis.

Francis grinned and looked back at Ellis.

"I told ya I got your back." Francis said.

"Stay here you guys we'll be right back," Coach said and he and Bill took off toward the direction the smoke was coming from.

"Wait a minute you said not to separate unless something happens!" Louis cried out and he and Zoey took after them.

"Well here we go again. I hate running." Francis said letting go of Ellis's hand and started running; Ellis quickly following behind him.

As soon as they caught up with the others they stopped and looked at them.

"Hey y'all what's the matter?" Ellis asked worried.

"Look down there see for yourself." Zoey said who looked like she was about to throw up.

"This is bad…" Bill said.

"I think we better find another route people." Coach told them.

"Guys what's going on?" Rochelle asked as she and Nick caught up with them.

Ellis looked where the others were looking at and turned completely white.

"Aw hell I think I'm gonna be sick." Ellis ran back the direction he came from and threw up in the nearest bush.

Author's note: wow um at first I had absolutely no idea how to start this chapter off and well it came out better then what I thought it was going to be. It almost if not took me at least 2 hours to write this chapter maybe a bit longer. Anyway i'm so glad i'm on spring break right now that I can concentrate on this story for the next week instead of also on homework. Of course I love the games so much that I've been playing them a lot and cant wait for the add on for l4d2 its called the passing. It comes out the end of this month so yeah. Anyway please leave me reviews because they inspire me as well as make me very very happy XD


	5. Supercharged Infected

Because You Live

By: esmtz

"What the hell happened here?" Rochelle asked as she saw Zoey take off after Ellis to go throw up.

"I don't know, but it was a slaughter house for these poor bastards." Bill replied slowly closing his eyes.

There was blood and guts all over the area along with body parts and what appeared to be what used to be tents. There was still a fire going in the fireplace that the people who were here had made.

"Well this explains where the smoke was coming from," Louis said looking around, "you think the infected did it?"

"Only possible explanation, but then again I never saw them do anything this vicious." Bill opened his eyes again.

"Well what do ya know, they're actually starting to become more violent." Francis said.

"How the fuck do you find this at all amusing?" Nick asked glaring at him while covering his nose from the awful smell of blood.

Francis growled and turned to look at him.

"I don't find it at all amusing. If you got a problem why don't you just say it, Nick?" Francis told him as he and Nick stood only inches from each other.

"Ok, fine for starters stay the fuck away from Ellis; he doesn't need to be protected most of all by you and second cut your crap about trying to make this seem like this is all fun and games to you because its not, Francis." Nick growled at him.

"Cut this shit out right now you two!" Coach said getting in between the two men.

"What's going on Coach?" Ellis asked as he and Zoey came back towards them still looking like they could throw up again any minute now.

"Nothing's going on, overalls, we were just about to find another way to get past this area." Nick told him not even looking at him.

Francis shook his head and walked towards Ellis. Nick turned to glare at Francis again since he obviously didn't listen to what he said. Ellis looked from Nick to Francis nervously.

"Ok, well which way are we going now?" Ellis asked.

"We're going to go around this area and hopefully whatever did this to these poor people wont come looking for us." Coach replied still looking at Nick and Francis and then turned and started walking with Bill.

Everyone resumed walking again next to their partners and continued to follow the group. They all were on constant guard from whatever, if it was the infected or not, massacred whoever was at that site.

"Well this is creepy. The sun is still out, but the farther we head into the forest the darker it seems to get," Zoey said getting closer to Louis.

"You scared, Zoey?" Louis asked her and she nodded.

"Well….yeah." Zoey reluctantly admitted.

"Don't worry I got your back and so does everyone else here." Louis said trying to comfort her.

"Thanks, Louis."

Rochelle rolled her eyes.

"God she is so annoying!" Rochelle whispered.

Nick smirked at her.

"Really you never said that about her before. In fact as I recall you girls were becoming good friends."

"Shut up, Nick!" Rochelle said turning red.

Nick laughed.

"Will you guys shut up already?! Jeez you could alert something to where we're at." Francis said glaring at Nick.

"What's the matter, Francis?" Ellis asked him worried.

"It's nothing. It's just this guy is getting on my fucking nerves." Francis said not taking his eyes off of Nick.

"Nick? Why?" Ellis asked frowning slightly.

Francis sighed and shook his head.

"It's not important. Let's just say we don't get along." Francis told him.

Ellis was going to ask why, but thought better of it. He already knew that he wasn't going to get an answer. Suddenly there were screams heard throughout the forest and it made everyone jump out of surprise and horror.

"What the hell was that?!" Coach asked.

"Since when were there other survivors out here?!" Zoey exclaimed as she pointed at another group of survivors who were out here running for their lives.

Their group watched in horror as a hunter attacked one of them and his guts were thrown everywhere.

"Shit, man they're supercharged! RUN!" Louis cried out and everyone started running as fast as they could go.

"Son of a bitch!" Bill cried out as a charger charged past him missing him by inches and rammed right into a tree.

"Quickly, kill it!" Coach said as everyone shot at it and it died.

"Well their powers are supercharged, but it looks like they still go down just as fast as before," Rochelle said still running.

"I hate supercharged infected." Francis said making Ellis laugh.

"Yes we know you hate everything asshole," Nick replied.

Ellis stopped laughing and turned pale as soon as he saw a Tank run at another group and quickly kill all four of them.

"Even running like this we're still sitting ducks if we don't get out of here right…" Nick was interrupted as a big piece of wood was sent hurtling his way and hit the exact same spot where the underwater infected got him.

Nick screamed and fell, unfortunately they were near a hill and the force of the wood pushed him towards it and as he fell he hit his head on a rock knocking him out.

"NICK!" Ellis cried out as he tried to run toward him, but Francis quickly pushed him down to the ground before they were both hit by flying tree and wood pieces.

"Is everyone alright back there?!" Coach yelled out as everyone was on their stomachs.

"No, Coach. Nick's hurt!" Rochelle said as she crawled to where she last saw him fall and saw that he was lying at the bottom of the hill bleeding from both his head and the side of his chest was even worse then before.

Ellis quickly crawled to Rochelle and looked down at Nick with wide eyes.

"Shit, we gotta get down there!" Ellis said and quickly got himself to slowly go down the hill; Francis and Rochelle following him.

"Guys, watch out!" Zoey cried as a hunter jumped ready to attack and kill one of them.

Ellis was quick and brought out the auto shotgun and with one single headshot he killed it. He got close to Nick and checked for a pulse. He sighed with relief when he found one.

"We have to get going guys. It looks like we're going to be separated from the others for a bit." Rochelle said making sure nothing else was headed their way.

Francis watched as Ellis tried to put Nick's left arm around his shoulder so he could support him while they try to get to somewhere safe.

"Francis, help me please!" Ellis pleaded with him.

Francis sighed and nodded and put Nick's right arm around his shoulder.

"Fine, but just remember if anyone asks especially him I did this for you NOT for him." Francis told him.

Ellis smiled remembering what Zoey had told him before they left the safe house and also remembering what Rochelle was teasing him about.

"Thanks a lot, Francis. I really appreciate the way you've been helping me." Ellis said making Francis blush.

"Uh, no problem."

Rochelle giggled.

"See what did I tell you, Ellis? Even Francis admitted it." Rochelle said watching with a smile on her face as Ellis turned red.

Francis looked at her confusion written all over his face.

"Well are we going to head on out now before we become some infected's lunch?" Francis asked.

"Oh yeah that's really appealing, Francis." Rochelle said sarcastically, "Let's just hope to god we find another safe house somewhere in this forest."

"You're saying that we'll still be here for awhile longer, Ro?" Ellis asked.

"The way Coach made it sound yeah so I'm praying that we make it to the safe house alive IF there's another one around here somewhere." Rochelle said.

Ellis looked at Nick completely worried about keeping him safe more then himself. Francis saw this and felt slightly hurt, but didn't show it.

"Alright kiddies let's go!" Francis said trying to hide his hurt with optimism.

Author's note: Well this is the chapter that has blood and gore in it that CorkyTheGuar had said that I should put in and to be honest it made this chapter almost horrific and suspenseful (laughs evilly) XD I totally like it. Supercharged infected yeah I have a wild imagination XD almost 500 views and I haven't even added this chapter yet. Thank you all for reading and reviewing this story it makes me really want to continue till I finish the story. Thanks also to CorkyTheGuar for suggesting I add blood and gore.


	6. Feelings

Because You Live

By: esmtz

"How is he, Rochelle?" Ellis asked as he entered the small bedroom where they had Nick resting in the safe house.

"He took a pretty hard hit to the head, but I think he'll be ok. It's the wound on the side of his chest that's worrying me," Rochelle replied looking up at him. She had already stitched him up and found that Nick had a slight fever as she put a wet cloth on his forehead.

Ellis looked at Nick feeling really worried and guilty that he couldn't help him out. They had only been at the safe house for a couple of hours and Ellis realized that he had been unable to do anything to make sure Nick was alright.

"What's the matter, Ellis?" Rochelle asked.

"I'm awful sorry, Rochelle. I should be the one to do this not you it's just I feel like I might not do a good job like you and the others always do," Ellis told her looking at her, "and besides Nick probably wanted you to do it instead of me anyway."

"Ellis, sweetie, you didn't believe me when I said that nothings going on between us?" Rochelle asked.

Ellis rubbed the back of his head and looked away.

"Well he did choose to go with you instead of me." Ellis said sadly.

Rochelle looked at him and smiled sadly.

"Ellis, Nick does care for you more then you know. He just has a hard time expressing it."

"That's not what I've been seeing. Hell I didn't even believe Zoey when she said that he refused to leave my side when I was hurt." Ellis sighed, "I hate being lied to."

"You weren't being lied to, Ellis!" Rochelle told him.

"She's right, Ellis. They've been telling the truth the entire time."

Ellis jumped and turned around to see that Francis was behind him with a serious look on his face.

"Francis, have you seen any sign of the others yet?" Rochelle asked worried.

Francis shook his head making Rochelle sigh and stand up.

"You guys look after Nick. I'm going to go stand guard at the entrance of the house." Rochelle told them.

Rochelle left the room and closed the door feeling that Ellis was only going to listen to Francis.

"What did you mean that I wasn't being lied to, Francis?" Ellis asked as he kneeled down next to Nick where Rochelle was sitting at.

Francis sighed and sat down next to Ellis and looked at him then at Nick.

"He's the one who pulled you from the water. To tell you the truth Nick was lying before about how Rochelle was the only one crying and that you were hurt," Francis swallowed closing his eyes for a few seconds.

"Francis? Look at me please. What is it?" Ellis asked looking at him worried.

Francis opened his eyes and turned to face him.

"We almost lost you. You weren't breathing and Nick was on top of you shaking you at first and then decided to do CPR. Rochelle tried to comfort him when we thought you were gone and he pushed her off of him. He'll probably never admit it, but I saw that he was crying. He literally had his whole body on top of yours and wouldn't let go of you. He and Coach almost got into a fight because he refused to leave." Francis told him.

Ellis didn't know how to respond as he was completely surprised and looked down at Nick who was sleeping and gently put a hand on Nick's cheek and then removed it his eyes going wide.

"Man he's really hot!"

Francis shrugged and looked down at Nick.

"His wound from getting hit by the underwater infected must have been getting infected from not doing anything about it for so long and then getting hit again in the same spot only made it worse," Francis sighed shaking his head, "that asshole he should have known better to at least tell someone that he was hurt."

"Wait, he was already hurt?!" Ellis asked horrified looking at him.

Francis nodded.

"The only reason I know that is because I went down there to help you guys out in time to see that thing strike Nick with its tail."

"So…he's gonna be a zombie now?!" Ellis asked starting to panic.

Francis sighed shaking his head.

"No he's getting warmer. If he was going to change he'd be getting colder."

Ellis sighed with relief and looked at him.

"How do you know?"

Francis didn't say anything as he closed his eyes again.

"Aw wait I'm sorry I really shouldn't have asked." Ellis said apologetically.

"It's ok don't worry about it, Ellis." Francis said.

There was a few minutes of silence between both of them and Ellis felt himself starting to turn red again from being in the same room with the two guys he liked. Ellis swallowed nervously feeling his heart rate speed up and turned to look at Francis.

"I like it when you call me by my name, Francis instead of kid all the time." Ellis said blushing as he saw the smirk cross Francis's face.

"What you don't like the nickname I gave you? It's too bad that its already grown on me so much that I'll use it when I want to kid."

Ellis turned brighter red as he saw Francis lean closer to him. Francis wasn't able to stop himself from doing what he wanted to do for awhile now and continued to get closer to Ellis who was backing away to the wall. Francis put both of his hands on the wall behind Ellis stopping him from going anywhere.

"Francis, what are you…?!" Ellis couldn't finish what he was asking as Francis kissed him.

"You son of a bitch!"

Ellis watched as Francis was thrown right off of him. He looked up and saw that Nick was awake and was looking like he was about to kill Francis. Nick grabbed Francis and threw him out of the room and walked out of the room himself. Ellis got up and quickly followed. Rochelle had been standing at the door watching for any sign of the others and jumped in surprise when she heard the loud noise coming from Nick's room. She watched in surprise and confusion when the guys came in and Nick threw a punch at Francis. Francis didn't react in time and hit the shelf that had the med kits and defibrillators making it all fall down.

"Guys what's going on?!" Rochelle cried out in horror looking outside to make sure nothing was heading their way from the sudden loud noise.

"I told you that I was going to be the one to punch your fucking face in asshole," Nick said watching as Francis spit out blood from his mouth and massage his cheek, "now I'm also going to be the one who's going to fucking kick your ass!"

Ellis looked from one to the other in horror.

"I would love to see you try that jackass! It's not my fault that I'm better for the kid then you are!" Francis told him smirking at the look on his face.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Nick growled.

"Unlike you I don't try and hide my feelings! At least Ellis knows how I feel about him." Francis told him.

A few seconds passed before Nick finally snapped. He and Francis started going at each other throwing punches, kicks, whatever they could to kick the others ass.

"Guys stop! Francis, Nick is still hurt!" Ellis cried out.

Rochelle quickly got out of the way as the guys headed her way and walked quickly towards Ellis raising an eyebrow.

"Um, Francis…kissed me," Ellis blushed rubbing the back of his head, "and I guess Nick heard all of what we were talking about. I didn't even know he was awake."

If it weren't for the guys fighting Rochelle would have at least said something encouraging to Ellis, but since that wasn't the case she just nodded and looked at the other two.

"Stop it right now you two!" Rochelle yelled out.

"Sorry, Ro, but it looks like Coach is better at stopping them then you are." Ellis told her and she sighed.

"This would be so much easier if the others were here right now," Rochelle said turning around and saw that a map was hanging on the wall, "hey I didn't notice this before."

Rochelle gasped in surprise as she took a look at it.

"This says that the city where the evac station is located is not far from here. In fact the direction we're taking has got us closer to our destination somehow. If we get moving it should only take us almost the rest of the day!" Rochelle said hopefully.

Ellis nodded looking at her.

"Sounds good, but what do we do about Nick and Francis?" Ellis asked her.

"I know. How about you stay the fuck away from me, overalls." Nick replied glaring angrily at Ellis.

Ellis looked at him completely hurt.

"W-What did I do?"

"Hey, asshole he's been worried about you this whole time and this is how you treat him?! He cares about you don't you fucking see that?!" Francis yelled at him.

"Nick, I don't know what I did to make you hate me. Just tell me what I did so I can fix it." Ellis pleaded.

"You want to know what you did, Ellis? It's because you're a stupid fucking hick who obviously is nothing but a burden to everyone else. You get in the way all the fucking time that we're always worrying about your sorry ass. Well I'm done I've had just about enough of looking after this kid!" Nick yelled at him and went back towards his room and shut the door.

"NICK!" Rochelle roared as she went towards the door and pounded on it.

Francis shook his head angrily and looked at Ellis worried.

"Ellis…"

Ellis bursted into tears and unlocked the safe house door and took off.

Author's note: When humans turn into zombies I'm not sure if either turning warm or turning cold is a symptom of being infected so I am assuming its turning cold if at all. I know Nick was being a total ass in this chapter but don't worry about it later on. It will still end as a NickxEllis story even though im starting to really get attached to FrancisxEllis um yeah 0.0' This is bad because the only way I'll satisfy my liking for FrancisxEllis would be for me to make more stories which by that time I might decide to do a different show or game T.T aw well its ok a couple I like on GOW (Gears of War) I know will never be fulfilled either. Ok im rambling on so I better stop before I end up boring you guys with what I'm talking about.


	7. Regrouping

Because You Live

By: esmtz

"Nick, open this door right now!" Rochelle screamed at him as she pounded hard on the door, "What is wrong with you telling that to Ellis! Because of you he's run off!"

"So? The kid needs to learn to take care of himself. He should know by now that being a liability is only going to put the rest of us in danger." Nick replied.

"That's a bunch of crap and you know it!" Rochelle said angrily, "Where do you get off saying that he's nothing but a burden?! You're the one who's been looking after him this whole time, Nick!"

"Yeah and I'm getting sick and tired of it." Nick said.

Rochelle shook her head unable to believe that it was Nick who was saying this.

"Nick, if you truly didn't care about him why did you save his life before? You could have just let him die and you never would have acted the way you did if you didn't care about him," Rochelle said sadly.

Nick didn't say anything. He just sat in front of the door feeling guilty that he had said what he said to Ellis. He refused to admit it to himself that he really did care about Ellis and that he was jealous that Ellis and Francis were getting close.

"Look I don't know what your problem is, Nick, but seriously Ellis didn't deserve that. He's practically in love with you and what do you do? You pretty much tell him that you don't care if he dies!" Rochelle said.

Nick winced at what Rochelle said and looked down at the floor.

"You know what, Nick? What would you have done if Ellis had died?" Rochelle asked.

Nick felt himself tense up. He closed his eyes tightly refusing to even let that thought cross his mind.

"No you know what maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you are still the selfish asshole who doesn't care about anyone but himself. You can just stay in that room while I go out to find where Ellis and Francis went. At least Francis cares about Ellis." Rochelle said and left the safe house.

Nick sat there for a few more minutes before finally deciding to follow Rochelle to go and look for Ellis.

"Ellis! Hey we really should get back to the safe house!" Francis called out to him as he followed after him.

"I'm not going back! Nick hates me…" Ellis cried out; tears falling down his face and he could barely see where he was going.

Francis finally caught up to him and grabbed a hold of his arm.

"Francis, let me go!" Ellis cried.

"I'm sorry, Ellis, but no." Francis looked around and quickly pulled out his shotgun, "Man you're a fast runner. I don't see the safe house anywhere in sight."

Ellis wiped the tears from his eyes and looked around.

"Aw hell, I did it again didn't I?" Ellis asked sadly looking at Francis.

"What are you talking about?" Francis asked reluctantly letting go of Ellis so he could have a firm grip on his shotgun.

"Being a burden. I just got us into some trouble didn't I?" Ellis asked sadly pulling out his shotgun.

"No, Ellis you aren't a burden. Nick was just being an ass and it's not your fault we're out here. If you want to blame someone blame it on him for talking to you like that because that ain't right what he said." Francis told him looking at him.

"It ain't his fault. I know it's mine I haven't exactly been holdin my own good enough." Ellis said.

'Goddammit, Nick!' Francis thought angrily.

"Well since we're already out here should we just go ahead and try to find a way to the city or at the very least look for the others?" Francis asked changing the subject.

Ellis nodded looking at him.

"Well I reckon this is a big forest and the best place to run into the others might not be until we reach the city." Ellis replied.

"Yeah you're probably right, Ellis. It wouldn't be a good idea to search around this forest with all these supercharged infected around. Did I mention that I hate supercharged infected?" Francis sighed.

"Yep you did already." Ellis smiled.

Francis grinned at the smile on Ellis's face.

"Glad to see I got you smiling again. Let's go oh and keep your guard up since it's only the two of us alright?" Francis told him.

Ellis nodded blushing. For the next couple of hours both guys stayed absolutely quiet to make sure they didn't accidentally give away their position to any infected.

"This is weird…" Francis whispered.

"What is, Francis?" Ellis whispered back.

Francis stopped walking and turned to look at Ellis.

"So far there's been no sign of any other survivors besides us and no sign of the infected anywhere either."

Ellis frowned and then shivered out of fear.

"You don't think that all the other groups of survivors that might have been out here were already killed?" Ellis asked.

"Probably only thing is I don't see…" Francis looked around and saw another area that was covered in blood and guts, "never mind I guess that answers that for us huh?"

There was a noise coming from behind them and Francis quickly stood almost in front of Ellis ready to protect him if necessary.

"Oh my god, Francis is that you?" a girl's voice was heard.

Francis and Ellis watched as Zoey and Louis walked towards them.

"Hey where did you guys come from?" Francis asked as Ellis blushed rubbing the back of his neck.

"We thought we heard someone talking over here so we thought we'd check it out. I can't believe we actually managed to find you guys." Louis smiled, but quickly turned to a frown and looked around.

"If you're wondering where your girl is, Louis we left her and the other guy back at the safe house." Francis grinned at the blush on Louis's face.

"Wait, you guys weren't at the safe house. It was just Bill, Louis, Coach, and me." Zoey said raising an eyebrow, "So you guys found another one?"

"Well yeah otherwise we probably wouldn't be alive right now would we?" Francis told them.

"Stop being a smartass, Francis. Why did you leave the other two behind anyway? You know it's a bad idea to separate right now." Louis asked.

Ellis looked away feeling guilty.

"We could ask you guys the same thing." Francis replied.

"To be honest we kinda ran into trouble as soon as we left the safe house," Zoey said, "Where we were there were tons of other survivors out here, but they ended up getting killed by more of the infected that came chasing after all of us."

"We got separated by a tank chasing us away from Coach and Bill. Luckily we were able to take it down before it could hit us." Louis added.

"So what about you guys?" Zoey asked.

"Eh I got into a fight with that Nick guy and he pissed me off so much I took off and Ellis here came with me." Francis said looking at Ellis who had a look of relief on his face and mouthed thank you.

Both Louis and Zoey sighed.

"How did I not see that one coming?" Zoey said to herself.

"I was wondering where you got that bruise on your cheek and chin, man." Louis said.

"So where were you guys headed now?" Zoey asked looking at Francis and Ellis.

"The city where the evac station is. Please tell me you brought a map with you. We kinda uh left the one we found in the safe room," Ellis admitted.

"Trust me I don't go anywhere without having one just in case," Louis said pulling it out of his pocket.

"It's nearing nightfall you guys shouldn't we find the fastest way to get there?" Francis asked.

"There's no need. The map says that we should be close to the city already." Louis said, "Let's just keep on walking."

"What about the zombies and shit. Shouldn't we be worried that they might attack us?" Ellis asked worried.

Zoey shook her head.

"I'm pretty sure we don't have to worry about them until we get into the city."

"Why's that, Zoey?" Francis asked.

"Haven't you guys noticed that there hasn't been any signs of the infected in this area of the forest? I'm assuming that they think that they got everyone in this area already." Zoey replied.

"Well, that's reassuring."

Everyone jumped and saw that Rochelle and Nick had shown up. Ellis looked at Nick nervously as he rubbed his neck and quickly looked away.

"Ellis I'm…" Nick started to walk towards Ellis, but stopped as soon as he saw and heard Ellis's reaction.

"Francis, can I stay with you and your group please?" Ellis asked clinging on to Francis's arm.

Francis grinned and looked at him and nodded. Nick tried to get Ellis's attention again, but failed as the group started to make their way towards the city. Ellis didn't look his way after that.

'I will never forgive myself if Ellis doesn't want to talk to me again' Nick thought to himself sadly as he watched as he was slowly being replaced.

Author's note: Just a few more chapters and I'm pretty sure I will have finished this story. I figured that it was going to be short. Oh well it'll give me time to think of a new idea for another l4d story. To all those who like the story since I have no idea who you are besides the ones that reviewed, favorited, or added to story alert I would like to say thanks for taking the time to read and enjoy my story. Hmm maybe I should have put that on my last chapter haha yeah…anyway I hope you guys all look forward to these next few chapters as for the next story…well im not sure if you want to or not since I obviously haven't figured out what it's going to be about yet.


	8. Reaching The City

Because You Live

By: esmtz

"Hey, Louis are you sure this is where the evac station is at? The city is…deserted." Rochelle asked looking around.

The group had finally arrived at the city and from what everyone was seeing there were no lights on and no one in sight.

"Yeah this is it alright," Louis replied checking the map again.

"Isn't it obvious what happened here? The city got attacked by the infected as well. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if the zombies are still lurking around here somewhere." Francis said looking around for any sign of Coach or Bill.

"Well, everyone you know what to do," Zoey said holding her pistols out in front of her.

"Do y'all reckon that maybe Coach and Bill might be around here somewhere?" Ellis asked staying as close to Francis as possible and away from Nick.

Nick noticed and looked away sadly.

'I screwed up big time with Ellis. I guess I don't blame him for the way he's acting' Nick thought about what Rochelle had asked him in the safe house about what he would do if Ellis died. He clenched his fists so tightly he made them start to bleed again. 'I have to fix things with Ellis. I just have to. Rochelle was right there's no way I would ever forgive myself if something happened to him. I almost lost him once and I don't ever want to go through that again! Man I sound pathetic right about now.'

"Don't worry about them, Ellis, sweetie I'm sure they're just fine." Rochelle smiled at him.

Ellis nodded and glanced at Nick who was looking at the ground and frowned slightly.

'Is Nick feeling…guilty?!' Ellis thought to himself surprised.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I would start moving before the infected decide to jump us while we're all off guard," Louis said putting the map away in his pocket and looked at everyone.

"Hey isn't that the fun part though, man?" Francis asked grinning.

Nick looked up and glared at him.

'Figures I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he accidentally got someone killed just because he was having a good time.' Nick thought about it and to his horror he thought that the person might be Ellis 'That's not going to happen! Over my dead body!'

Louis sighed and shook his head.

"Louis is right though. We should just go and find the evac station. For all we know Bill and Coach might be there already," Zoey said.

"Well of course he's right! We're almost out of here so let's just hurry up and find it before we get ourselves killed!" Rochelle said slightly out of anger and started walking.

Zoey looked at her wondering what she was so upset about. Everyone quickly started following right behind Rochelle and as soon as they got closer to the buildings they automatically heard someone crying as well as other noises.

"Be careful everyone. It sounds like a witch." Zoey told them as she looked around carefully to make sure she didn't accidentally startle the witch.

"Yeah and it also sounds like a hunter and a spitter too," Rochelle added worriedly.

"If one hit from a supercharged hunter makes your guts come out I'd hate to see what a supercharged witch does," Ellis said looking around for the hunter or spitter.

Nick swallowed and walked up to Ellis trying to force himself to at least look at the kid.

"Hey, overalls I really need to talk to you about what I said before," Nick said finally looking at him.

"Not now, Nick can't you hear the sounds coming from a witch and that hunter and spitter? I don't want to be a burden on anyone here so just leave me alone so that I can concentrate on finding them before they attack us." Ellis responded coldly.

Not only was Nick hurt by what Ellis said, but Ellis didn't even bother to look at him when he said it that it hurt Nick even more and he actually showed it on his face. Francis turned to look at Nick and smirked.

'Serves that asshole right' Francis thought but was immediately broken out of it as he felt something underneath his feet.

"Holy shit man what the hell is that stuff?!" Francis cried out and immediately stepped back.

Ellis turned to look at him worried.

"What happened, Francis?" Ellis asked him.

"I don't know, I think I stepped in some kind of goo or whatever this shit is." Francis responded looking down at the boiling green acid.

Zoey looked at it and frowned and then turned to look at Louis.

"Remember what it did to those people back in the forest?" Zoey asked him.

Louis nodded.

"Yeah it melted their feet off," Louis replied and looked at Francis, "Well that is weird. It didn't do that to Francis."

"Well looks like the spitter is nearby!" Rochelle said and started walking around ready to shoot it.

Nick was about to say something, but then he saw something out of the corner of his eye and immediately knew it was the hunter. It looked ready to pounce and he already knew who it was aiming for. Nick pushed both Ellis and Francis out of the way making them both fall over; Ellis on top of Francis.

"Shit, Nick what did ya go and do that for?!" Ellis asked angrily as he stood up and quickly turned to look at him and saw in horror that Nick was getting ripped to shreds by the hunter.

"Get it off me!" Nick screamed as blood pooled all around him.

Ellis went to pick up his gun since he dropped it when Nick pushed him, but by the time he picked it up the hunter was already dead.

"Nice shot!" Louis said.

"Thanks now come on get up!" Zoey said as she helped Nick up and then helped him to sit down on the ground.

"Guys what happened?" Rochelle asked running back towards them.

"The hunter showed up and attacked us that's what happened!" Francis said standing up.

"The hunter was trying to get at Ellis and Francis, but Nick got them both out of the way so the hunter pounced him instead." Louis told her.

Ellis watched feeling completely scared and helpless as Zoey tried to patch up Nick's wounds, but he just shook his head.

"Hold on to it for now. We need to find some place safe before you can patch me up." Nick said trying to stand up, but immediately tensed in pain and fell back down.

Ellis felt himself get a little closer to Nick as he saw that he wasn't able to stand up. His eyes went wide as he saw just how bad the wounds were. Nick's chest was torn up and blood was still coming down from the claw marks the hunter had left.

"There's just one problem, Nick. There's no more safe houses." Louis told him.

"Fuck….fuck…" Nick said from the amount of pain that he was in.

"Let's just get him into that house over there," Rochelle pointed out, "It's the only one that seems to have a way to lock the door and cover the windows."

They all nodded and Zoey started to help Nick to his feet. Nick saw as Ellis got closer to him. Nick smiled sadly.

"You know, overalls you don't have to help me if you don't want to." Nick said quietly.

Ellis could already feel the tears he hadn't noticed start to fall. Francis growled slightly and reluctantly pulled out his pain pills and held them out to Nick.

Nick looked at him raising an eyebrow.

"Just fucking take them already!" Francis said putting them in Nick's hand and immediately walked off.

Nick slowly pulled the cap off the bottle and took one of the pills and immediately started to feel slightly better.

"You ok to walk now?" Zoey asked him.

Nick nodded.

"Yeah, thanks." Nick said.

"No problem, Nick. Louis come and help me out here would you?" Zoey asked and watched as Louis came and helped support Nick all the way to the house.

Ellis followed behind them feeling extremely bad that he was again unable to help and especially for the way he had been treating Nick even if it was only for just an hour or so. Just as they got closer to the house they heard the scream of the witch and then suddenly it was gone.

"Wow I can't believe I totally forgot about the witch," Rochelle said sighing with relief.

"It's about time you guys showed up. What took you so long?" Bill asked smoking on his cigarette as he put down his gun on the table beside him.

"We were all wondering where you guys were at plus we just ran into some trouble," Rochelle said and watched as Francis came in and then Louis, Nick, Zoey, and Ellis.

"Yeah I can see that." Bill said looking at Nick and let out a puff of smoke.

"Well it's nice to see that you're doing fine old man!" Francis grinned.

"It's nice to see that you haven't gotten yourself killed yet either, Francis." Bill responded.

"That wasn't what I meant, Bill. It's just…oh hell never mind." Francis said shaking his head.

Louis and Zoey helped Nick to lay down on the couch and Zoey immediately pulled out her med kit. Ellis walked up to her.

"Zoey, can I help you patch him up please?" Ellis asked.

Nick looked at him in surprise but didn't say anything. Zoey smiled and nodded.

"So where's Coach?" Rochelle asked.

"He's out making sure we killed all the zombies in this part of the city. He said that he would be back in a bit." Bill replied, "We're just lucky as hell that the infected don't have that super strength anymore otherwise we'd all be dead right about now."

"So does that mean that just the two of you by yourselves killed most of the zombies around here and that's why we didn't run into a lot of them as soon as we got here?" Louis asked.

Bill nodded looking at him.

"Why are you underestimating me just because I'm old?" Bill asked.

"Uh, no it's just even for us that would be hard to do. That's impressive." Louis responded starting to feel uncomfortable.

"Well until he gets back we still have time to patch you up." Zoey said to Nick and started stitching up one of his few wounds.

Nick nodded not taking his eyes off Ellis who was starting to look nervous as he started to stitch up another one.

Francis watched as Ellis carefully tried his best not to accidentally hurt Nick. He knew that deep in his heart that Ellis would always care for Nick more then himself and yet Francis knew that as long as the kid was happy he was happy.

Author's note: Man for some reason this chapter felt longer then the rest lol. Well I can guarantee you guys that there's at least one more chapter if not two. I was just wondering if anyone who's reading this has an Xbox live account. I would like to be able to play with you guys if you want just message me or review and I'll message you back and I'll let you know what my gamertag is. I play mostly as Ellis, but recently I've been playing as Nick since he's my next top favorite. Actually they both tie as my first the other two Coach and Rochelle are well…ok. I don't play as Coach simply because I just don't want to and Rochelle im ok playing as her which is weird because I don't like her healing me when I'd rather be healed by Nick or Ellis or at the very least Coach which even then I'm iffy about. It's also weird how at times I hate Coach and then others its Rochelle it's just plain weird. I'm not racist or anything because I think Louis is totally cool. Coach and Rochelle just annoy me simple as that. This was also the longest author's note lmao sorry I'm done now.


	9. Almost There

Because You Live

By: esmtz

Coach had shown up as soon as Ellis and Zoey were done stitching up Nick's wounds. He looked around the room and had a big smile on his face.

"Hey y'all its nice to see that you guys made it here in one piece," Coach told them.

"Thanks, Coach. We're just glad that you and Bill made it here yourselves." Rochelle replied smiling at him; kicking at the dead witch next to her.

"Aw were y'all worried? There was no need to worry about us. We got to take down all the regular zombies and some of the special infected that were in this area," Coach said proudly.

"Hey leave some for the rest of us will ya?" Francis asked slightly hurt that he missed out on the fun.

Ellis smiled at Francis while Nick rolled his eyes.

"By the way what on earth happened to you, Nick?" Coach asked looking at him, "You look like you got ripped apart by a witch or something."

"It was a hunter actually." Nick responded and before he could say anything else Ellis jumped in.

"It was my fault, Coach. I hadn't noticed the hunter and Nick pushed me out of the way and it got on him instead." Ellis said looking down at the floor.

Francis put a hand on his shoulder and gripped it tightly looking at him then at Coach.

"Actually, man it was both of us who hadn't seen it coming since a spitter caught me by surprise and Ellis had his attention focused on me." Francis told him making Ellis start blushing.

Coach chuckled.

"There's really no need to explain all this to me. I do however want to know what's going on between you three since Nick here keeps glaring at you, Francis and when I came in here it looked like Ellis had finished patching him up," Coach said pointing at Francis, Ellis and Nick.

All three of them blushed.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Coach." Ellis said feeling his face heat up.

Coach laughed.

"Don't try to hide it. You've all made it very clear that there's something going on with at least two of you and the last ones jealous or are you all doing a threesome?" Coach asked grinning.

"What the fuck, Coach?!" Nick turned as red, if not redder, as Ellis as he tried to sit up but Zoey gently put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down.

"Seriously now we've only been separated for awhile and you honestly think that we'd have time to do anything like that what with all the zombies and shit trying to kill us?" Ellis asked.

"Well you did have time for you and Francis to start kissing each other, Ellis." Rochelle giggled.

Coach just laughed making both Francis and Ellis turn redder and Nick just looked angry. Louis and Zoey turned to stare at Francis in surprise.

"Francis, you actually kissed him?" Louis asked looking from him to Ellis.

Francis blushed rubbing his neck.

"Uh, yeah what of it?"

"Can we just drop this subject already," Nick growled.

Zoey looked at him then at Francis.

"So that's what you and him were fighting about before. It was about you kissing Ellis and Nick saw." Zoey said.

Bill sighed and looked at Coach.

"See what you did for just asking about it? Now we're never going to get them to stop talking about it," Bill said not at all amused, "By the way how many more zombies do you think we need to kill before we can reach the station?" he asked.

Everyone stopped talking and looked at Coach.

"Well it looks like we killed the majority already, but I'd still be cautious once we start heading toward the station which lucky for us ain't that far from here," Coach replied.

"Alright then let's go." Nick said and slowly sat up and got off the couch.

"Whoa wait a second, Nick. Are you sure you should be moving right now? This is already the second time you've been hurt." Ellis said worriedly looking at him.

"I don't have much choice, Ellis. This place isn't a safe house where we can hold off the infected. Here there's a good chance that we could get attacked and right now is the best shot we got at making it to the station." Nick replied looking at him.

Ellis was silent for a few seconds before he slowly nodded and then turned to look at Francis. Francis leaned closer to him and whispered.

"I'll make sure he'll be fine alright, Ellis?" Francis told him.

Ellis smiled and nodded.

"Ok thanks, Francis."

"Don't mention it."

"Well y'all better keep up with me because after coming this far I don't want to have to come back this way for whoever's sorry ass gets left behind." Coach said to all of them and went out the back door of the house.

Everyone quickly followed him and Nick took another pill to lighten the pain in his chest while he was walking. Coach and Bill were at the front then Louis, Zoey and Rochelle were behind them and then following them was Francis, Ellis and Nick.

"Seriously, you guys don't have to wait for me to keep up. I'll be fine." Nick said to Ellis and Francis.

"Yeah we can see that," Francis said sarcastically, "Besides I already promised the kid that I would make sure that you would be ok."

Nick didn't reply as he caught up with them and watched as they started walking slightly ahead of him. Nick didn't know why, but he suddenly thought about if Ellis was really going to go with Francis's group or not.

'How much do you want to bet that there's going to be two helicopters instead of just one that's going to get all of us out of here? That means that we're going to be separated and if Ellis was serious about going with Francis…' Nick bit his lip looking at the back of Ellis's head, 'dammit why didn't I think about this before?! That's it I know this is last minute and I don't give a fuck if Francis is here or not. I have to tell Ellis now or it will be too late to tell him.'

Even though he said this to himself it still didn't help the fact that he was still too nervous as well as because of his pride to say anything and he ended up not saying anything at all.

'Goddammit' Nick thought to himself and sighed closing his eyes.

"You ok back there?" Francis asked looking back at him.

Nick opened his eyes and saw that Ellis was looking at him worried.

'Great last thing I want is for Ellis to be worrying about me' Nick thought.

"How many times do I have to say it? I'm fine." Nick replied looking at him then at Ellis.

"Well ok I was just asking." Francis said slightly annoyed.

Ellis looked like he was about to say something, but didn't.

"You know, overalls. I forgot to say thanks for patching me up. You did a really good job." Nick smiled slightly at him.

Ellis looked at him completely surprised and then smiled blushing.

"You're welcome, Nick. I just couldn't stand there and do nothing to help ya out again." Ellis replied.

"Ellis, you've always been helping me out ever since we got stuck in this fucking zombie apocalypse shit. If there's one thing I know about you, Ellis is that you've never been a burden and I'm sorry to have made you think that you were." Nick said as he walked up to Ellis who was looking at him completely taken aback.

Nick put a hand on Ellis's shoulder and gripped it tightly smiling at him making Ellis blush. Francis kept on walking already knowing exactly what was going to happen as soon as they got out of the city. Nick was just about to tell Ellis how he really felt when he heard Coach talking.

"Hey, y'all I might have spoken too soon about you know having killed all the zombies around here." Coach said.

Everyone had stopped walking and Nick was wondering why they all stopped. He frowned and started walking towards Coach and Bill who were in a small alley and saw to his horror what looked like could be hundreds of zombies. Ellis and Francis had followed him and they were also surprised.

"Holy shit, man.." Ellis said quietly.

Francis for once didn't comment especially after seeing a tank nearby.

"This can't be happening," Rochelle whispered and felt Louis's arms go around her.

"Don't worry, Ro. I'll make sure we get out of here alive." Louis said kissing her cheek.

"Well now all you kids get to see first hand what it's like to be at war," Bill said taking a last smoke of his cigarette before throwing it away.

"Well if something goes wrong it was nice killing zombies with all of you," Zoey said and held out her sniper rifle.

Author's note: yeah next chapter is definitely the last one. I'm surprised that I was able to finish the story because to be honest I was starting to feel a bit lazy. Please tell me what you think about the story because I would really like to know if it sucked, if it was good, great, boring or whatever. Im also really happy to see that there's another FrancisxEllisxNick story out there and so far it seems better then mine awesome! ^_^ anyway hopefully I'll add the last chapter on Friday.


	10. Down With The Sickness

Because You Live

By: esmtz

"Well how are we supposed to get past all of these zombies?" Rochelle asked looking at the tall building where they were supposedly supposed to head to.

"What do you think, Rochelle? We kill them that's how we're going to get to that building," Zoey responded.

"That's easier said then done," Nick said who had also spotted the tank that Francis had seen as well as a charger and a jockey.

Ellis stood close to Francis and he felt Francis's hand hold on to his and gently squeeze it. He squeezed back and looked at Francis who for once had a worried look on his face. This troubled Ellis since he knew that Francis was never one to worry.

"Good thing you guys have us to back you up then," Louis replied letting go of Rochelle and got ready to shoot anything that came their way.

"Even with the eight of us this is still going to be harder then we thought," Bill told them, "Just pray that no one dies out here before we get to the station."

"Hey no one is going to die out here! Not on my watch!" Nick said looking at everyone, but mostly at Ellis.

"Y'all I'm afraid we can't stay here any longer they spotted us, run and shoot!" Coach said as he saw the normal zombies run at them.

The group immediately started running towards the zombies and it alerted the tank and the other special infected as well.

"Shit, y'all Tanks coming on our right!" Ellis yelled out and started shooting at the zombies that were next to him and then tried to shoot at the tank that was coming closer to them.

Coach and Bill shot at the zombies in front of them while the others took care of the ones coming at them from the sides.

"We know, Ellis!" Nick yelled out to him over the noise of the zombies as he shot down a smoker who was trying to pull him away from the group.

Limbs and heads were being shot off the zombies by the survivors and the tank was getting closer as it kept on throwing zombies out of its way.

"Aw hell no!" Ellis yelled having to reload just as the tank got close enough to hit a few of the survivors

Louis, Zoey, and Rochelle were sent flying away from the others, but they quickly got up and tried their best to shoot at the tank since the zombies kept getting in their way.

"Man, these guys are annoying!" Rochelle cried out pushing the zombies away from her.

"Y'all look out for that charger!" Ellis cried out.

Louis turned and saw that it had charged and slammed into Rochelle. It picked her up and began slamming her into the ground.

"Help! I'm getting my ass beat!" Rochelle cried.

"Hang on!" Louis and Zoey yelled.

"Ellis! The tank!" Nick told him.

"I could use some help over here!" Francis said as he backed away from the tank that was heading his way.

Coach and Bill had stopped running to help out with the tank until a jockey jumped on top of Bill.

"Get this thing off of me!" Bill yelled.

With one shot Coach killed the jockey.

"Francis!" Ellis screamed and ran towards him and shot at the tank to try to get its attention.

"Overalls, what are you doing?!" Nick yelled running to keep up with Ellis and shooting the tank at the same time.

Just before the tank went down it swung at Francis sending him flying towards a spitter that had spit where he had landed. Francis immediately went down from taking too long to stand up and move away from the goo. Francis started screaming from the amount of damage he was taking.

"FRANCIS!" Ellis screamed completely frightened and ran towards him as soon as the goo vanished.

Ellis started helping Francis up as Nick killed the spitter that was trying to run off.

"Are you alright?" Ellis asked.

Francis slowly nodded.

"Yeah, but this is not a good time to be lagging behind." Francis said as he slowly started limping toward the others.

"Y'all forget about killing the zombies, just keep trying to push them out of the way! We're almost at the building!" Coach yelled out to the others as soon as Francis, Ellis, and Nick caught up with them.

"You alright, Ro?" Louis asked looking at her and she nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Rochelle replied.

Almost everyone had already finished using up the pain pills that they had except for Nick who still had the ones Francis gave him. Nick watched as Ellis frantically started to help Francis out with the zombies by pushing them away from him and then shooting as many as he could get. Nick took out his pain pills and held them out to Francis.

"I don't need this." Nick said and gave them to Francis who immediately took the rest of the pills.

"Thanks." Francis replied and continued to push the zombies away from himself and Ellis.

Just as they reached the building, everyone was already in pretty bad shape, especially Francis, who was barely able to keep up with everyone else. They were all so happy to see that they finally made it to the evac station that no one had noticed the sobbing of a witch had started to turn into an angry growl. Everyone made it into the building and before they could close the door the witch ran at them. Bill immediately went to shut the door so nothing else could get in.

"Aw hell there was a witch?! Who pissed it off?!" Coach asked trying to kill the bitch.

Everyone ran in different directions and Nick, to his horror, watched as the witch went towards only one person; Ellis. He was about to go and help him out when he saw in complete shock that Francis was already in front of Ellis getting in the way of the witch and it took him down instead. Ellis was horrified and immediately he and others shot at witch quickly killing her. Ellis was in tears as he helped Francis up again.

"Francis, if you go down again you're gonna…why did ya do that?!" Ellis asked unable to stop himself from crying right there.

Francis looked at him and grinned despite the fact that he was losing a lot of blood.

"Because I care about you, kid. More then you know." Francis responded coughing up blood.

Ellis looked at him his eyes wide in surprise. Nick looked at Ellis and then at Francis and looked away.

'I don't have a chance now. I guess the least I can do is to make sure that they make it out of here' Nick thought to himself as he saw the zombies start to break down the door.

"Francis, you really need to heal up" Zoey told him almost ready to cry herself.

Francis shook his head.

"Why the hell not, man?!" Louis asked him.

"Because you idiot look behind you" Francis told him.

Everyone turned and saw that the zombies were almost done breaking down the door.

"Aw, shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Ellis yelled out in horror as he helped Francis to stand up.

"We better hurry and get to the roof y'all!" Coach told them and began making his way upstairs.

"You sure you got him, Ellis?" Rochelle asked looking at them both worried.

"Yeah I got him, Ro. Don't worry about us." Ellis replied not sounding so sure of himself right now.

"Well, ok…" Rochelle said still worried

"Rochelle, go ahead and head on up. I'll help out back here," Louis told her and she nodded and reluctantly followed after Coach.

"Don't take too long. We can't leave without the rest of you, you know." Bill said and he too started heading upstairs.

"You guys go on ahead. I'll try to stall these guys for as long as I can," Nick said making Louis, Francis, Ellis, and Zoey look at him in shock.

"Nick, what are you doing?!" Ellis asked completely horrified at the idea of leaving Nick behind.

"You wouldn't stand a chance fighting them all by yourself!" Zoey told him, "Especially when you're still too hurt to really do anything."

"We're not leaving you here alone, man!" Louis said

Francis snorted shaking his head.

"Not like we could if we wanted to. The kid wouldn't let us right, Ellis?" Francis asked looking at him.

Ellis didn't respond. He just kept looking at Nick and Francis already knew that he wasn't going to leave him here. Francis smiled and whispered in Ellis's ear.

"Ellis, it's ok. You make sure he gets to the helicopter or whatever it is that's getting all of us out of here. I know how you really feel. You just make sure and tell that to him though alright?" Francis told him.

Ellis looked at him in surprise making Francis grin and then turned his head to look at Louis.

"Hey, man could you help me out here?" Francis asked and Louis nodded.

Louis went over to them and put Francis's arm around his shoulder and stood up and helped him to the stairs. Zoey followed them as they went upstairs. Ellis watched them head on up still worried that something might happen. He turned his attention back to Nick who had his gun aimed at the door.

"Ellis, go ahead and go. I promise I'll catch up when I can," Nick told him even though he knew that he was lying to him.

Ellis walked towards him and stood next to him aiming his gun at the door.

"Naw, Nick. If you ain't going then I ain't either," Ellis told him.

Nick looked at him like he was crazy.

"You're going to get yourself killed, Ellis!" Nick cried.

Ellis kept his eyes on the door ready to kill whatever came in. Just as the door busted open, Nick grabbed Ellis's hand and ran up the stairs.

"Fuck, Ellis. Why are you always so fucking stubborn?!" Nick asked hearing almost all of the special infected at the entrance.

"Well, at least it got ya movin, Nick." Ellis said smiling to himself.

Nick rolled his eyes, but deep down he was glad that Ellis did care about him.

"Damn how big is this building?!" Nick yelled out after having run up to the fifth floor.

Ellis frowned wondering why they haven't run into Louis and Francis yet or even anybody else. They hadn't been at the entrance long enough for the others to be at the roof already. That was when Ellis saw to the corner of his eye an elevator.

"Nick, wait there's an elevator!" Ellis pointed out.

Nick and Ellis quickly ran towards it and pushed the button that lead to the highest floor and the door closed just as the smoker showed up and had tried to grab one of them.

"About….fucking….time…" Nick gasped for breath and sighed sitting down on the floor leaning against the wall of the elevator.

Ellis sat down beside him and looked at him worried.

"You doing alright?" Ellis asked concerned that while running Nick might have torn his stitches.

"Yeah I'm fine, overalls." Nick said as soon as he got his breath back.

A few minutes passed before Ellis spoke again.

"What were you thinking trying to take on all those zombies by yourself? Were you trying to get yourself killed?" Ellis asked looking at him sadly.

Nick sighed and shook his head.

"No, Ellis it wasn't like that. I just figured that I would give you guys some time to get yourselves and Francis out of here since he was badly hurt."

Ellis looked at him in surprise.

"Nick, you never cared this much about anyone before."

Nick didn't say anything for a few seconds. He just sat there looking at the floor and then turned to look at Ellis.

"Ellis, I know you have no reason to believe me when I say that I do care about you. I always have ever since we got out of that mall in savannah. I probably didn't realize it then or I was in denial about it that I ended up covering it up and acted like I hated you when in reality I didn't," Nick swallowed and continued to look at Ellis who was completely taken aback, "You've grown on me so much, overalls, it isn't funny. When you were taken underwater by that infected I thought for sure that I was going to lose you and it was driving me crazy when I couldn't get to you right away. As soon as I went after you I thought I was going to have a heart attack because you weren't moving and by the time I brought you back to the surface you weren't breathing either."

Ellis watched as Nick closed his eyes and took a deep breath in before opening them again. Nick's eyes were starting to water and for the first time ever Nick actually hugged him. Ellis's eyes went wide as he felt himself turn red and slowly returned the hug.

"N-Nick..."

"I couldn't bear it when I thought you had….anyway after that you know the rest. Francis obviously cares about you a lot, Ellis for him to almost get himself killed for you. You probably don't feel the same, overalls, but I have to tell you that I love you and that you mean everything to me. The reason why I was acting the way I did before was because I was jealous of Francis. There I said it." Nick said and pulled back from the hug smiling slightly.

Ellis swallowed feeling his heart rate speed up.

"I-I love you too, Nick. Hell even Francis knew how much I cared about you that I'm surprised he…"

Nick smiled and kissed him.

Ellis blushed closing his eyes as he kissed back putting his arms around him again.

"Well ain't that cute."

Nick and Ellis jumped apart in surprise and saw that the elevator had already reached the top floor and Coach was looking at them grinning. Both of them were bright red as they quickly stood up.

"How long were you…?!" Nick asked rubbing his head.

Coach laughed.

"Just now. Hurry up you two. You guys can make out on the plane once you get on it."

"Wait, plane?" Ellis asked.

"Yeah everyone's already on it including Louis and Francis." Coach grinned as he saw Ellis relax.

Nick groaned.

"So we're going to be stuck with the other group from now on then?" Nick asked.

"Hell yeah, they're awesome." Coach told them and lead them toward the roof (Which was only one more flight of stairs up).

"Are we ready for take off now?" The pilot asked as soon as they got on the plane.

"Yup everyone's here and accounted for." Coach said and the pilot immediately closed the door and went to the front.

"Well there you are, kid. I was beginning to wonder if something happened," Francis said grinning as the girls began to stitch up and bandage his wounds.

Ellis smiled looking at him.

"It's great to see that you made it, Francis."

Francis smirked as he saw that Nick and Ellis were holding hands.

"You better take good care of him, Nick or I will kick your ass if you don't" Francis told him.

Nick glared at him.

"Why is it every time you open your mouth it makes me want to kick your ass?" Nick growled.

"Now, boys behave yourselves now." Rochelle said smiling.

Zoey sighed smiling also.

"Well I guess this means we're just going to have to get used to this right?" Zoey asked.

"Hell yes." Louis said and kissed Rochelle making her blush and giggle.

Bill snorted smoking again.

"Kids these days…"

Everyone felt as the plane took off and each on their own mind were wondering what was going to happen to them next.

The End

Author's note: OMG I'm finally done! This chapter took along time to write and its over 2,000 words! This is the first time I wrote a chapter over 2,000 words! SWEET! XD anyway I hope you guys liked the story and again I'd like to say thanks to all of my reviewers because otherwise I probably wouldn't have finished the story as well as to all the people who at least read the story. I have an idea for another story but it might change its going to be strictly FrancisxEllis and well lets just say that Bill, Nick, Rochelle, and Coach won't be in it sorry to say, but more then likely it probably wont be that story if I can come up with another idea. Anyway I hope you guys look forward to my next story whatever that is. Oh and if you want check my profile and look for my myspace link. On myspace for my name my gamertag is on there if you want to add me on Xbox live. Later.

-esmtz aka Sarah


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